When progress isn't really progress....

What do you get when you mix four kids (more if you add in the neighbor's kids), two dogs, five brick masons and a sand pile the size of Mt. Everest?? Oh - and throw in several hundred square feet of hardwood floors to boot. Yes - ding, ding, ding - you've guessed it! A mess of tremendous proportions.

When we built our house five years ago, my dearest husband wanted to brick the entire house. As anyone who has ever built a house knows, the little extra "add ons" come with a *gasp* "it's gonna cost how much?" response. Not to mention, HE'S the one who insisted on wide-plank Brazilian cherry floors (but that's another story). So we decided that "someday" we would brick the remainder of the house.So every time we've ever done anything to the house, he mentions longingly "sure do wish we could brick the house". All the arguments were trotted out every single time - it would raise the value of the house (yeah, right, nothing will do that in this market), better soundproofing (there's something to that one - the neighbors are probably surprised that I haven't seriously maimed our children judging from the screaming and yelling that goes on ... but that's another story), and increased comfort, i.e., warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

So when we took advantage of lower interest rates and refinanced this spring, I casually mentioned "Why don't we brick the house?" to my dearest husband. You'd have thought it was Christmas! The light in his eyes rivaled the glazed look he gets when he approaches a heaping plate of my spagetti! What I didn't realize is that the brick masons would enjoy our family so much that they'd just stay..... and stay....... and stay!

Truth be told, they've had bad weather to deal with. For three years now, we in the Southeast have struggled with drought --- well, not to worry! Just let the Bulldawg family begin a home improvement project, then sit back and enjoy the rain! Rain, tornado-like winds, sleet (in April??), and cold temperatures have made the work - actually the completion of the work - a real challenge. Not to mention that our black lab has figured out that they bring their lunches every day. I think she's snagged at least a couple of their lunch bags and rendered them hungry for the day.

But the main problem has been the sand, the mortar and the mess! The aforesaid dogs, children and various family members have managed to reduce the mountain sized pile of sand mainly by bringing it into the house. I'm convinced that the workers didn't use much of the sand for the brick work - I'm convinced that some of it....nay most of it....has ended up on my good floors. There's just nothing like padding out to the kitchen early in the morning for my wake up glass of sweet tea and feeling the grit underneath your feet. It sounds like the rhythm section of the high school band in there! How many times a day have I swept the floors???

We are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. The brick masons will be done in a couple of days. Scooter has actually laid a brick or two. The dog has enjoyed laying in the sand. The workers have bonded with the dog. I've baked bread and cake as burnt offerings to the workers to appease them. You always want to appease the workers.I guess in a week or two (or three) the driveway will be cleared of scaffolding, sand, chunks of brick, bags of mortar -- and don't forget the huge yellow-rust construction dumpster gracing our driveway. Hopefully I'll have worked in my flower beds and planted my begonias. Then my dearest husband will lean back and say to me "gee, aren't you glad we bricked the house?" Maybe they left a brick or two behind, or maybe for his sake, they didn't!

What will the next project be? Well, since we started this project, we decided that the porch railings and columns would just look really ratty next to the crisp new brick. Then a storm came up and we lost a lot of roof shingles and part of the fence. Is there ever really progress when it comes to your house? Tell you what, the next time my dear husband gets that gleam in his eye and starts talking about expanding the garage, I'll be searching for that spare brick!

T-ball heaven

Well, the last one has started T-ball. Scooter swaggered onto the field yesterday, replete with batting gloves, cleats, at least 3 bats in his bat bag, and a grin on his face.

I figured it up - 21 years ago this spring, I began my weekly/bi-weekly pilgrimage to the ball park. I've coached, screamed, laughed and been irate for lo those many seasons.

Soccer has never held the same fascination for me as baseball. There's just something about the white baseball, the symmetry of the diamond (oh, yes, I LOVE that word!), and the elegance of the perfect double play.

My oldest stood in the outfield at the tender age of 4, picking dandelions and making chains with them. Staring at the clouds, kicking the dirt - doing everything but pay attention. Then - fast forward 14 years - a more determined and aggressive player you'd never find. Not the most talented member of the team by any means, she had to work harder and smarter to keep her beloved position at 2nd base. Never giving an inch, she barreled down the baseline with no quarter for the poor position player who hoped to get her out. Giving her all. Every game.

So I guess I will be traveling to the ballpark for the next 14 years. That means I'll be 64 in my folding lawn chair - cheering for what most everyone will assume to be my grandson.

Here's to the great American pastime!

A Nose by any other Name....

won't be able to smell, either. The surgery is scheduled for next Monday to repair the hole in my septum and repair the valves in the bridge of my nose. It's very disconcerting to know that the doctor will make an incision and literally flip back my nose like you open the hood of your car. Still don't know what caused the hole, and there are no guarantees that the "patch" will hold. I've got a friend who offered some well-chewed bubble gum.....frankly that sounds like a viable, logical option at this time. Desperate times call for desperate measures! Bubble gum sounds infinitely more attractive than harvesting the cartilage in my ears and tissue under my scalp. "Harvesting"???? That's something you do with tomatoes, not my blasted ears, anyway!

Getting ready for 8 - 10 days without mom in charge. The laundry! The shopping! The cleaning! The cooking! The calendar! The chauffeuring! Maybe I should just wait until.....oh, next decade? But the doctor says it can't wait, so here we go! Thankfully, our family and friends have offered to stand in the gap. I'm wondering if they will still claim us after the long, hard week or so is over.....mmm?

Then there's the problem of being "out of the office". Got to catch up on correspondence, all the things I've promised folks, etc. Somehow it will all get done and who knows? maybe a miracle will take place and I'll regain my sense of smell.

Nothing very entertaining this time.....just musings on the hole in my head. Funny - all my friends always thought I had one and now it's been medically confirmed!

Pinky-toes?

What a weekend! We are in the middle (actually not really started with the actual brick-laying part - just getting ready) of bricking the house, and the contractor has removed the gutters & downspouts from the drains that ever so carefully direct the water AWAY from the house. Needless to say, we had a gully-washer here on Saturday afternoon, and the new brick ledges that have been built did a very efficient job of directing the water INTO the basement. It was, of course, tinged with red mud, so we had a real mess on our hands. The baseball baron was already scheduled to spend the night with a friend, and the sympathetic mom offered to take Scooter off my hands too while I finished (with tremendous help from neighbors and my brother in law) vacuuming up the water, mopping the floor, etc. Anyway, I suddenly realized that Scooter had been subjected to beauty-party play the day before. Which means, our babysitter, the Diva and the Bookworm had been painting finger and toe nails. Well, they decided (actually I'm not sure who decided) that Scooter should join in on the fun. Yes, you've guessed it, Scooter had pink finger and toe nails. Before he left to spend the night and go to their church on Sunday, we quickly removed the finger nail polish, thinking he would have on shoes and socks at church.

Sunday afternoon was clear and bright, just the perfect weather for kids to play outside. And what do kids enjoy more than playing in the mud? And that's exactly where they headed as soon as they got home. So when it was time to leave for AWANA, much scurrying around & changing of clothes had to be done. After quick spit baths and rubbing with damp washcloths, I thought everyone was reasonably clean.......well, I was wrong!

At church later that evening, I ran into one of Scooter's teachers who was looking for me. They had removed all the kids' shoes in order to make a project with their foot prints. When they took off Scooter's shoes, they realized his socks were soaked (because his shoes were soaked - I hadn't realized that, just knew that his pants and socks were covered in mud and wet). Not only did he have on big brother's socks which were about 8 sizes too big, they saw his PINKY-TOES! We all laughed and laughed, and I was grateful that the women in his AWANA class knew us well, and best of all, have children of their own. Although to fully appreciate the situation, I feel that you would need to have multiple children and at least one boy (and a neighbor boy, too).

I guess this evening when I cut the boys' hair, I will also remove some pinky-toenail polish as well.

Back in the grind

At approximately 12:30 a.m. on Friday, we rolled into the driveway in the mobile mansion. After greeting the dogs, we basically fell into bed, grateful to be home.

Would we do it again? Probably not. But at least we did it! What a grand adventure. Seeing the empty desert; knowing it teems with life, watching the birds soar over the hills of Texas; wondering how long it would take those wicked looking clouds to find us and drench us. Watching those big, fat, lazy snowflakes at the Grand Canyon.

Then of course, there was "she hit me for no reason" and "he pushed me for no reason" and the ubiqutous "he/she hurt me for no reason". I suppose the qualification that the injury was not in any way provoked, i.e., for "no reason", makes the offense more offensive!

Running out of milk, out of water, and almost *gasp* out of Diet Pepsi, we made it home from a journey of about 2700 miles that began in the air over a week ago. We are truly blessed. What a wonderful country we were privileged to be born in. One of the memories we have of the trip is being directed to a checkpoint somewhere in west Texas, where we were asked "all US citizens in here?" I couldn't help but think that we, especially the little ones from Russia, had won the birthplace lottery. We travel freely around our great country and for the most part are unmolested when we do so. We have "rights" that most of the worlds' citizens can only dream about. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness --- lines written by the esteemed Mr. Jefferson over 230 years ago. Aren't we blessed that we can gather freely for religious exercise (it might do us all good if church mandated some weight-lifting and exercise!), travel, work and live without fear? God is good and His mercy endures forever.

Did San Antonio survive the invasion?

Let's see.....Tuesday and Wednesday nights we actually stayed in the same place. We enjoyed San Antonio, TX at the Admiralty RV Park near Sea World. We have decided that San Antonio is one of our favorite places. We are going to try to come back sometime in the next year or so to visit Sea World, go to a minor league baseball game, visit the Riverwalk again, and do other things.

We took the bus near the RV park to downtown and went to the Alamo. First, we went to the large Riverwalk Mall in the downtown area to the IMAX theater and saw a film about the Alamo. I didn't realize all the details about the battle - that the 13 days of the siege gave precious time for the army to build elsewhere and eventually defeat Santa Ana's army.

Then we went to the Alamo itself. It is much smaller than you envision, and surrounded by tall, modern buildings. The Alamo is treated as a sacred shrine. Guards ask men entering the building to remove their hats, no photographs are allowed, and people talk in hushed tones. There are many artifacts there from the time period, including items belonging to David Crockett, Jim Bowie and the army commander Lt. Travis. I was proud to see that there were 15 Kentuckians who fought there for the freedom of Texas. Lots of Irishmen, too, but then I've always known that we Irish love both a good fight and a lost cause!

We enjoyed a boat ride down the famous Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. The river meanders through the city and provides a cool respite from the city's heat in the summetime. Many shops & restaurants line the river, with bistro tables right at the water's edge for a romantic meal. *Sigh* maybe someday without 4 kids???

Then we headed to Mi Tierra, a Mexican cafe and bakery in the Market Square area of San Antonio. We had a great meal, and I got two of the biggest pecan pralines I've ever seen! Caramel fudge, too. Oh, well, diet tomorrow, right? There was a marahachi band serenading the patrons, and they even sang "La Bamba"!

After we left the restaurant, I got turned around and we started walking in the wrong direction. For once, my dear husband's keen sense of direction based upon his superior hunting and gathering skills failed us. We walked and walked, and it was getting closer to when we would miss the last bus out to our campground. There were some rough looking characters, and I began to pray......"Lord, keep us safe, help us find our way and send your angels to guard us". No more than a minute or two later, a trolley driver pulled up beside us and offered to take us where we needed to go. When we arrived at the bus stop there were four transit police cars there with lights blazing! They sure looked like angels to me. I told hubby that sometimes I forget what a big God we serve. We finally made it back to the campground safely; what a great day in a wonderful city. Everyone there was so courteous, nice and it was a very clean city. We were surprised at the number of tourists.

We left San Antonio this morning and started out I-10. I drove for several hours, through Houston, road construction and busy traffic. I told hubby dear that if I could drive the RV through that, I could drive it anywhere and he agreed!

We are spending the night near Biloxi, Mississippi and expect to be in Bulldawg country sometime late tomorrow, depending upon how late we sleep! I don't know if we'd do a trip of this magnitude in such a short period of time ever again, but I'm sure glad we did. I think it's something like 2200 miles in 6-1/2 days!

Oh - today I read "Even Now" by Karen Kingsbury. Now I'm hooked! So many of my friends have told me what a great author she is and I was almost afraid to try her, knowing I'd love her and have to read everything she's written....well, I was right. Where's the closest bookstore??

You're invited to take a tour

Of the traveling mobile homeschooling mansion.......

We were excited to see how much room there is in the living area. Above the cab is a queen sized bunk, and in the back bedroom a king sized bed! Never enough storage, but that's the nature of the beast.

Yesterday & some today, the kids sat at the dinette and did school while traveling down the interstate. Cool, huh?

Tomorrow ---- remember the Alamo!